


Nothing or Something?

by Illidria



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M, Fluff, LLF Comment Project, Wishfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 15:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11359935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illidria/pseuds/Illidria
Summary: Sometimes doubt goes both ways, but encoragement does too.





	Nothing or Something?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InkuisitivSkins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkuisitivSkins/gifts).



> This is a fic-wish for the wonderful @Inkuisitivskins!  
> You`re just awesome!

Pride wasn’t something Brigadier General Olivier Mira Armstrong often indulged in. But right now, with her most trusted 1st Lieutenant finally getting promoted to Captain, she let it show the slightest bit. A normal man would probably have been promoted years ago, but with Brigg’s men it always took almost twice as much as it would someone from Central. Patrolling the border for years, life constantly on the line, was worth nothing in the eyes of the powers that were. Where others had been promoted for far lesser things, Captain Buccaneer had to be the one to save well over a dozen of Brigg’s soldiers from an advancing Drachman threat, by killing two dozen enemies at a dead end, with his crocodile.

She’d been proud of that feat alone alright, although in secret. And she’d spoken in front of the General’s council in Central Command, carefully pointing out to those crusty old men that a promotion was more than just deserved. It was overdue. Not just for Buccaneer, but also for a handful of other soldiers under her command.

They’d given in, at long last, falling prey to her skills of persuasion. Not that she’d used the kind those pigs would have liked, but rather being brutally honest with them, letting on that she’d take the matter higher, should her plea be denied.

Captain Miles sitting next to her, shifting ever so slightly, had her lean in even so.

“Permission to speak freely, General?”

He had been her adjutant for some time now, a reliable man that knew when to keep his mouth shut. But after once walking in on something he shouldn’t have walked in on, he`d loosened up in regards of humor. Yet, sensible enough to understand when to keep his mouth shut still.

“Permission granted Captain Miles.”

They spoke low, the ceremony still going on. Guards always seemed to notice when she spoke, however quiet, but never when cadets made misogynistic jokes.

“You’re looking, and this is no way meant in a degrading manor, positively smug, Sir.”

She shrugged, regal and respect demanding expression never leaving her face. Never would she favor, just because a person shared his life with her. Not when it came to duty and work. But pride was only natural, if deserved.

“That may very well be the case, Captain.”

* * *

“You know, they used to tell me I’d never amount to anything.”

He lay on the bunk, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He was a sight to see, no point denying it. Muscles abound, years of hard work showing were it was supposed to.

She sat on her desk chair, chin resting on her hand, enjoying the view.

“Who?”

She felt his eyes on her, felt them roaming over her body, clad in nothing but the heat of the room.

“Everyone except for my parents, I think.”

“You know, they said the same thing to me.”

“Who?”

“It would be easier to tell you who didn’t.”

He snorted, ceiling forgotten and yet not moving from the comfortable bunk. Bluntly she asked him, not caring for decorum, at least not in their privacy.

“What did you do, when they told you that?”

The grin very slowly vanished from his face. He sat up, one hand raking through his hair, left messier by her hands than ever before. His dark eyes found hers, not sad, but not happy either.

“Well, I was ten when they first told me. I didn’t take it seriously. But at the boarding school they repeat it until you believe it I guess.”

“One of those state schools for “indigene people”? Those established after the hundreds of other education-acts?”

She stood and walked over to him, sitting down opposite of him. The room almost felt too warm for her, yet his skin against hers couldn’t be warm enough.

He nodded.

“They told me that I wasn’t smart enough for anything more than working in mines or herding caribous, so I tried for the military at sixteen, more as a joke than anything. My friends and I had a good laugh when they accepted me after the examine. But after a few days it actually sounded better than just digging through the underground. And don’t even get me started on caribou-economy. I could fill evenings with that.”

What started out as solemn became gradually more cheerful, until he was gesturing wildly. Caribous always got him in a frenzy.

“It wasn’t easy, neither basic in Central, nor the first months at Briggs. Hell, it isn’t easier here now, but General Payen was a good man. And you`re, um, a good man too.”

She raised an eyebrow at his rant, along a corner of her mouth. Saw his eyes fall onto her lips at that.

“Thanks, big guy. Weird, but thanks.”

A hint of red tinted his cheeks and he forced himself to raise his eyes back to hers. Just in time to see her honesty in them he made it, listening intently.

“And now? Are you feeling that way still, or…?”

It struck him, the real concern for him in her voice, however hidden it may be. Noticed yet again, how little he believed that they truly were one. Not for all to know, but still.

His head shook of its own accord.

“Nah, I`m fine now. I know what I can do. You showed me, remember?”

The wink was almost too cheeky for her liking, but in this kind of privacy she decided to allow it. Neither of them was good with their feelings, at least when it came to voice them, but his skin against hers, her lips on his neck, hands in long hair, this was a language both understood.

And when he asked her, afterwards, if she sometimes wondered if they were right, those people from her past, from now, she shook her head.

“Nobody managed to invade this country and kill people I hold dear. I`d count that as an accomplishment.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), whose goal is to improve communication between readers and authors. I invite you to leave:
> 
> _Short comments_   
>  _Long comments_   
>  _Questions_   
>  _Constructive criticism_   
>  _Reader-reader interaction_
> 
> I reply to every comment, though it sometimes takes me a day, or two.
> 
> I thank you for reading this fic of mine through to the end. I appreciate all comments and kudos and should you want to get into direct contact with me [this is my tumblr](http://illidria.tumblr.com/)


End file.
